REGION: Supervisors agree to pay cuts

Each will take 10 percent reduction; other electeds also trim pay

RIVERSIDE -- Supervisors and at least three other elected county
officials agreed Tuesday to cut their annual pay by 10 percent, the
amount the county is asking from unions to help balance the budget
for the coming fiscal year.

Supervisors are paid $143,000 annually; the cut amounts to
$14,300 per supervisor and will begin July 1, the first day of the
2009-10 fiscal year.

"We need to set an example for all employees," Supervisor Marion
Ashley said.

The other electeds who agreed to the 10 percent cut were
Assessor-County Clerk Larry Ward, Auditor-Controller Robert Byrd
and Treasurer-Tax Collector Don Kent. Ward and Kent make $165,000 a
year. Byrd's salary was not immediately available Tuesday.

District Attorney Rod Pacheco could not be reached for comment
Tuesday on whether he would volunteer to cut his salary. Sheriff
Stanley Sniff said he will be "taking reductions" along with his
executive staff. He didn't give an amount or provide other
details.

Board Chairman Jeff Stone said the cuts were part of his and his
colleagues' push to "do everything possible to maintain services
and save jobs."

Reducing their pay cuts carries more diplomatic heft than actual
savings' impact -- combined, the supervisors' and other three
officials' cuts will save roughly one-tenth of 1 percent of the
$130 million administrators are trying to trim from next year's
spending plan.

All of the pay cuts agreed to Tuesday extend for a year
beginning July 1 and could be extended for a second year depending
on the county's economic health. Last week, the county's top
financial officer, Paul McDonnell, projected the county's revenue
stream will decline by an additional $4 million in the 2010-11
fiscal year.

Riverside County has been especially hard hit by foreclosures
and sinking housing prices, which has reduced the flow of property
taxes, the county's chief income source. For the 2009-10 fiscal
year, which begins July 1, supervisors are anticipating $627
million in funds they directly control.

"We're running out of time on this budget," said County
Executive Officer Bill Luna. He said he plans to ask supervisors
next week to cut the pay of all 2,300 county managers. Luna and the
supervisors have been pressing for months for unions representing
the county's approximately 16,000 unionized workers to accept pay
and benefit cuts of 10 percent so the county can balance its
budget. Luna says the alternative is up to 1,000 layoffs.

Supervisor Bob Buster suggested Tuesday the county might want to
adjust those cuts to perhaps 6 percent for the lowest-paid workers
and rising to 12 percent for higher-paid workers; how that
suggestion might play in ongoing negotiations with unions isn't
clear.

Time is running out for the supervisors, however, who say they
want a balanced budget on their desks by June 30.

As negotiations with unions approach the last full week of the
fiscal year, supervisors' Tuesday action seemed to be an effort to
accelerate the process.

Martin Johnson, a political science professor at UC Riverside,
said the volunteer pay cuts are politically wise.

"When employers in either the public or private sector ask their
employees to suffer some pay cut for the sake of the continued
existence of the entity, being willing to take those same cuts is
an important symbolic action."